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Noctua IndustrialPPC and Redux Fan Roundup Review

Noctua IndustrialPPC and Redux: Conclusion

Some people will probably harp on Noctua for simply re-releasing old tech. I am not one of those people. Mainly because Noctua did exactly what I wanted. For years I have been wanting Noctua to make a faster fan at the sacrifice of some quiet. I mean they already have some of the most efficient fans. Why not speed those up a bit to get some better temps? I also think they made a good choice in making the redux line to appeal to the less intense noise/overclocking enthusiasts. They found a great market by re-purposing the older fans and I think it will get them more exposure with those less familiar with the computer cooling industry. All of these fans are great, even if it is their second unveiling. I think that with the release of the industrialPPC and the redux, Noctua has every base covered. Easy to please base users who don't have much need for insane power or quiet, sound enthusiasts who need to work with little to no sound, and those who have a need for speed to keep their CPUs from frying during heavy overclocking.

As far as performance goes, all of the redux fans provide enough cooling to keep my 4.4 Ghz i5 well within the operating conditions. At this point, you the reader, should be asking yourself, "Weren't there two other fans that didn't show up on the testing page?" Well here's the skinny, I don't have the appropriate gear to test the little buggers. So I plugged them in and checked out their noise production so that I could at least let you readers know a little bit about them. The R8 is a mostly standard 80mm fan, nothing really stood out. But, the B9 was a little more impressive. I could feel a decent amount of air moving through it at max speed and it was quite possibly the most quiet of all of the fans at max. Overall, they are nice little fans meant to be an improvement on stock cooling solutions in really small cases or small CPU coolers.

Swiftly coming back to the lager and fully tested fans, I was apathetic about the S12B. Unfortunately, it is in the middle of the road. It cools well enough, perhaps even very well considering its size, but it just doesn't stand out. Where the S12B fails to really catch attention, the larger redux fans steal the spotlight. What may have impressed me the most is the proximity to the A15 that the P14's came. Dealing out nearly identical performance with a lower price tag and older technology. Although, to be fair, the A15 is considerably more quiet. On that note, if there were to be any one flaw, it is that the redux fans are really not all that silent when stressed. The older redux fans were once replaced by quieter fans that had similar performance and it shows (if only the slightest bit). However, with that in mind, the noise that the redux fans make is still rather low in tone, pleasant to the ear like a gust of wind.

The grand finale is the industrialPPC series. There are not likely fans at the 140mm size that can match these thermal killing speed demons. They are an overclocker's dream. Throw a couple of these at a water cooler and heat dissipation will never be better. At nearly 50 Celsius I had nothing but head room for additional overclocking. The big caveat is the sound production. They are very loud, especially the F12s. The F12s in particular make a mildly high buzzing sound at max that is nearly impossible to ignore, although both are very noticeable. This doesn't improve much when against the Noctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler. These are literally some of the most powerful fans out there right now but the unfortunate price is sound. Other fans are likely much louder at these speeds and air pressure simply because Noctua is almost always the quietest in the market and that makes these fans easily worth a hard look at, they are just not for the consumption of those who hate noise.